Rumor: Blackhawks currently shopping 2 of their forwards.

The Chicago Blackhawks have had a pretty solid offseason thus far, the acquisition of Vezina finalist Robin Lehner alone should have fans in the windy city excited about what the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season will have in store for them. In spite of the fact that Chicago has seemingly already made its big summer moves, it now sounds like Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has a few more cards to play before he's done. 

On a recent episode of the Mad House Chicago Hockey Podcast, 670 The Score's Jay Zawaski revealed that the Blackhawks are currently shopping 2 of their forwards. Now it is unclear if Bowman intends to move just one or both of these players, but Zawaski did reveal the identity of the 2 players currently being dangled on the trade market by Bowman. The first and the least surprising name of the list was that of veteran center Artem Anisimov. In spite of being used frequently during the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season Anisimov's name has been the subject of trade rumors for quite some time now, and it has become obvious that the Blackhawks would prefer to move on from the 31 year old veteran center. He certainly is still a capable NHL player however with Anisimov recording 15 goals and 22 assists for a total of 37 points last season with the Hawks.

The other name on the list and one that came as more of a surprise was that of restricted free agent froward Brendan Perlini. A National Hockey League general manager actively shopping one of his restricted free agents often points to the fact that there is a gap in contract negotiations between the two parties, but I have nothing to suggest that there is indeed this time of rift between Perlini and the Hawks other than pure speculation. That being said is does seem like somewhat of a strange move as you have to wonder about Perlini's value on the trade market. The winger saw his point totals drop significantly last season both prior to and following a trade from the Arizona Coyotes to the Chicago Blackhawks, and that very likely damaged his worth in the eyes of many teams. That being said the native of Guildford, England was a former 12th overall pick in the draft so perhaps his first round pedigree still carries some weight with rival teams.

One thing is clear is that both these moves are motivated by the log ham at forward the Blackhawks are currently dealing with so if Zawaski is correct in his assertion that these 2 are being shopped, I would suspect that at least one of them will be dealt before the start of the regular season.